OSHAWA -- Oshawa Generals GM Chris DePiero insists he'll take the best player available when the time comes to make a pick in the opening round of this weekend's Ontario Hockey League Priority Selection.

Just who that player will be remains up in the air, though the list of likely candidates is narrowing.

While it seems certain the Erie Otters will tab underage forward Connor McDavid with the first overall pick and it sounds as though the next three or four selections -- Roland McKeown to Kingston, Eric Cornell to Peterborough, Jared McCann to Sault Ste. Marie and Joshua Ho-Sang to Windsor -- are close to being set in stone, if not already, much is still left to chance for the Generals, who own the seventh pick.

Huron Perth Lakers defenceman Jacob Middleton and Vaughan Kings forward Michael Dal Colle are the two most common names being bandied about around the league, while others, such a forwards Brett Hargrave and Robert Fabbri of the Mississauga Rebels and Sam Bennett of the Toronto Marlboros have also been in the conversation.

DePiero admits he and his staff have narrowed the list of prospective players down and is hopeful that the final decision on who they will select at No. 7 will be made on Friday, but wasn't about to get into naming names.

"I think we all kind of have an idea and we'll have meetings on Friday, our final draft meeting, and we'll hopefully have some more clarity by then," he said. "If not then we feel comfortable with the group of players that we'll have in the mix at that point."

The clarity he refers to likely lies in the fact that Guelph, selecting one spot ahead of Oshawa at six, has yet to tip its hand.

Sean Lafortune, director of scouting for TheScout.ca, recently published a mock draft that has Guelph settling on Fabbri, which if it plays out as such, would leave the Generals with a decision to make on the big two in Middleton and Dal Colle and some of the others mentioned.

On Middleton, Lafortune says, "that's kind of a marriage that makes a lot of sense from both sides. He's a very physical, smart, positional defenceman in his own end. When he comes into the OHL next year at 16, you're not going to see a kid who is going to be flashy or be a Ryan Murphy with the puck, but the expectations are he is going to come in and solidify his own end, control gaps well, win battles down low and just kind of bring more of a nasty physical presence to a blue-line."

Middleton is considered to be the second-best defensive prospect in the draft behind McKeown.

Weighing in on Dal Colle, Lafortune says whoever ends up with the six-foot-two forward will be getting someone who can fill a role quickly and quite well for his new team.

"One of the smarter players in the draft and probably one of the more ready as far as being able to come in and play a top two or top three line role," Lafortune said. "You don't have to worry about him coming in and getting lost. He'll find a role and play to that role right away."

As for the likes of Bennett and Hargrave, they are two players will differing skill sets. Bennett is a skill player with great hands and vision, while Hargrave brings eye-popping size at such a young age, entering the draft at six-foot-four and some 200 pounds.

Regardless of who the Generals settle on in the first round, it will be a quiet draft room for a little while afterwards. Due to previous trades, DePiero won't make another selection until late in the third.

And prior to swinging a deal with Plymouth on Tuesday, it had looked like they would be sitting idle until the fourth. However, DePiero dealt Oshawa's first round import selection along with a sixth rounder in 2013 to the Whalers for London's third rounder this year, Plymouth's sixth and Kitchener's first round import pick.

DePiero said the move was designed to add a little more to the bare-looking cupboard heading into Saturday.

"It's just given us some more flexibility. Instead of having 12 picks we've got 14 now," he explains. "Not having a second or third, the idea was we wanted to get a third at least and a secondary pick, whether it was a fifth or sixth."

Oshawa will now be making picks in the first, third and fourth rounds before missing out on the fifth. DePiero will then make two choices in the sixth and one each from seven to 15.

And unlike in years past, the thought is some pretty solid players will be up for grabs in those middle rounds.

"There is a lot more depth in terms of getting a pretty good player in the third, fourth, fifth, sixth round compared to other years," DePiero says.